Chapter 1894: Each to Their Own Path (IV)
Feng Yan listened intently to the Dragon master describing her future course of action. She didn’t care about ascending to ninth rank or helping humans in a hypocritical manner. To her and all chaos beasts, humans were food and enemies!
But since her father had laid out this path for her, she would listen. After all, she worshiped the Dragon master too much.
“I understand!” Feng Yan wasn’t a fool. Her mother had provided a comprehensive education, she was simply too young and lacked experience in individually leading a faction. The young phoenix committed her father’s words to memory.
“I don’t think that Skyward will revitalize that quickly,” said the Dragon master. “Once the four regions have settled down... I will head outside for a bit!”
He looked in the direction of the outer regions and contemplated for a while before saying, “I will take Red Moon with me and kill some powerhouses in secret. I will disturb the entire state of affairs in the outer region! Whether it is posing as Chaos Sky or one of his subordinates... I will pretend to be human and kill some of their heavyweights!”
“Ah...” Feng Yan immediately became concerned. Wouldn’t that be too dangerous?
“During this time, you, Black Tiger, Qingqiu and the others will work in tandem,” smiled the Dragon master. “You will oversee Dragon major world and the four regions! Tell others that I am in closed door cultivation to break through to ninth rank!
“Black Tiger will coordinate with you and keep the humans in check to be exploited. What you need to do during this time is to tame and domesticate a portion of them!”
“I understand!” Feng Yan nodded.
The Dragon master vanished without a word. Red Moon was proving to be a bit of a handful. He was taking the human out with him to show Red Moon that he had no other choice but to work with the Dragon master!
As for Red Moon not being particularly strong among eighth ranks... that didn’t matter. The Dragon master had accepted Red Moon partially for his strength and partially because Red Moon and New Martial were born of the same region.
New Martial had always been within Red Moon Region, as had Silver Moon. Red Moon had chosen to target New Martial when it rose to power, as opposed to all of the other seventh rank worlds in his region. Why was that?
Was it because the Human King was too tyrannical?
But back then, he was simply making circles around the area. He hadn’t done anything to actually antagonize Red Moon. As for the Sun God making his rounds through the area, he was just one seventh rank and didn’t target Red Moon. Why had Red Moon insisted on focusing on a seventh rank?
Did it have something to do with the cultivator of time that’d appeared in New Martial?
The Dragon master didn’t mean Li Hao, but the previous generation cultivator of time. He’d once seen an image of that cultivator conversing dao with the Skyward master.
Despite his musings, the Dragon master didn’t have any evidence to back up his thoughts. Red Moon didn’t seem to have a particular motive in mind either. He’d come across New Martial by chance and a conflict had developed. And now... he was out of a home.
But being an eighth rank cultivator of dao, it was... quite bizarre that Red Moon often suffered from the backlash of his own desires. Perhaps it wasn’t an issue with him, but that he was being affected by other unnamed presences?
Desire was easy to lose control of, yet the man had taken his path to eighth rank! At his stage, it was abnormal to often be lost in fear, fury, or rage...
The Dragon master hadn’t discovered any clues to verify his speculations. He simply felt that it might be worth keeping Red Moon around. The man had pitted himself against New Martial and Silver Moon at the same time, but neither faction had managed to kill him.
It was Blazing Sun and Skycloud dead instead, not him. Did this count as some sort of unheralded luck?
Perhaps... there was more to be uncovered about the man.
......
Li Hao was currently roaming through the chaos.
The nine layers of the outer regions were very clearly delineated. But there didn’t seem to be any barriers between the layers. He crossed whichever layer he wished to. What was interesting was that the cultivators of the outer regions readily listened to orders.
Cultivators did not wander through even uninhabited areas. Perhaps they were afraid of death, or they were simply accustomed to this rule. They kept to whichever layer they resided in. No one attempted to cross borders.
Was it a rule that everyone should keep to their layer? Who’d built these layers in the first place?
According to Kang Han’s information, no one knew. This rule had existed ever since he was born and had been maintained to present day. All worlds followed that guidance.
There didn’t seem to be any punishment for breaking it. However, weaklings didn’t seem inclined to share the same layer as powerhouses either. And so, the rule was respected throughout time.
Li Hao was mulling over several possibilities at the moment. What if... the layers were a ninth rank’s dao?
This seemed to be a way of bringing order out of the chaos. It just seemed utterly nondescript for the moment. The layers simply reorganized the outer region.
There was no clearly defined punishment for violations or any special markings. Apart from a dense blanket of chaos strength between the layers, there wasn’t anything else that was special. In contrast, chaos tribulations flooded Thunder Region. It took only one glance to see that whoever had built it was very strong indeed!
Was he thinking too much, or was this really the dao of a ninth rank? Was he not seeing things clearly yet, or had the other hidden their intentions very deeply?
Li Hao passed through another layer and entered the so-called seventh layer. He extended his senses and found that there was no difference between this layer and the rest, apart from even denser chaos strength.
His only conclusion from the seventh layer was that it was barely inhabited. He could barely see any cultivators, much less wandering cultivators.
“If this is a kind of dao, what dao is it?” He exhaled after a period of observation. “I can sense almost nothing. There isn’t anything special about the layers apart from separating out various ranked worlds. If it isn’t dao, who would spend so much time and effort to categorize the entire chaos into nine layers? Do they really have that much time on their hands?”
The chaos was mind-boggling vast. What was the point of going to so much effort?
Not to mention, there were so many worlds in each layer. Ones that came later should’ve made the move themselves, but there must have been someone directing operations in the beginning. Who would uproot their own world?
Kang Han looked at the young man with a blank expression. The rest were used to Li Hao’s habits.
Void understood what his friend meant as Li Hao had once mentioned order might be involved in ascending to ninth rank.
“This does look like nothing special,” he said. “Can it be that the chaos was once a unified whole? The layers would’ve made it easier to manage. A tower-like hierarchy, which makes each successive layer responsible for the one before it... those that live on the ninth layer would save themselves some trouble this way.”
Li Hao gave his friend’s suggestion some thought. That was possible!
“Humans organize the chaos into nine layers, imparting some clarity to the muddled mess of the universe,” Fog Mountain piped up. “This will ensure location knowledge of the minor, mid, and major worlds.
“Does this count as bringing order forward? Perhaps the person who did this in the past cared more about the process and not the result. Maybe they didn’t care if the nine layers were useful or not?”
Li Hao nodded again. That made sense as well!
“The worlds now might not be the same as the worlds before,” added the dao chess. “Can it be a similar case with the Skyward master, that the worlds within the nine layers were once an arrangement of dao?”
Li Hao blinked, then nodded. That, too, sounded probable. Could it have been a dao domain created from one dao of a myriad worlds?
This possibility had never occurred to him before, but it was feasible. He himself was building a dao domain of worlds. If he dared do it, why wouldn’t the ancients have attempted the same thing?
“That makes sense!” The young man took in a breath. Whether it was Void, Fog Mountain, and the dao chess, all of them were highly learned individuals. And so, they postulated reasonable theories at this stage.
Number Two looked at them and suppressed the urge to roll its eyes. As for the queen and Panther... they shared a look of incomprehension. It was fine that they didn’t understand. They weren’t important.
Kang Han was even more lost. What are you guys talking about?
“I think what senior dao chess says is very likely.” Li Hao’s eyes darted around as he took in the scene. “The chaos is so unbounded that it’s hard to observe in its entirety. If someone can utilize a myriad of worlds to build a dao domain, then there might be a treasure in the ninth layer that grants a view of the entire universe!”
“......” Kang Han blinked. That, he understood, but found incredible. “There is... actually nothing special or different about the ninth layer. It’s just that some worlds have made their way there, ones such as Reincarnation, Chaos Sky, Five Elements, Spring Autumn... All of these overlords reside in that layer.”
There’s seriously nothing exceptional about it. Based on what you’re saying, there might be treasure there?
What a joke!
I’m a long-term resident of the outer region and I know nothing about that. You’re a bunch of foreigners who’ve just left the four regions. You blow a lot of hot air and decide that there’s treasure in the ninth layer?
What kind of bullshit is that??
Naturally, he didn’t dare voice his thoughts aloud. Whatever, you guys can think what you think. But don’t go running around for it. If you head for the ninth layer and run into one of those guys... you’ll be in for it then.
Li Hao stroked his chin and looked up above, then around him.
“Damn I’m lucky,” he murmured. “There are definitely a lot of opportunities in the outer regions. I seem to have bumped into a ninth rank’s dao as soon as I set out...”
Although he hadn’t detected anything specific, he might be able to gain a closer look into the mysteries of ninth rank if he located the treasure that he speculated existed. It would give him some reference material for how to build his own dao domain.
A frown crossed the young man’s forehead when he thought of something. What if someone had taken the treasure?
He sank into deep thought as he stared into the distance. If that was the case... then only Chaos Sky could be responsible. He wanted to conquer the chaos, after all. Did he want to recreate the ninth rank’s dao?
With that in mind, Li Hao led his group into the eighth layer. Gemini was close by.
